Shattered

Bear Rescue!

And some other stuff happened, too.

2

JAN/11

August 23rd, 2009

The motley continued where they left off, deciding whether or not to help the trio of misplaced people. After a brief discussion where at least some of them insisted on it, the suggestion was raised to speak with Dusk, since he’s known to have occult books in his shop.

When they got there, Lucas was the only one in, and after speaking to them (fairly poorly, admittedly), he let them in to the back room to look at Dusk’s collection. Surat spoke a bit with him, indicating that he’d be interested in possibly working at the store – Lucas said he had to talk to Dusk about that.

After a lot of boring research that took forever, Dusk finally showed up at the store again. They asked him if he had any ideas, and he thought that perhaps a witch had done it. When asked if he had any connections, he admitted to knowing and dealing with a witch who may possibly help them – if they were willing to give him something in exchange.

They decided to meet with the witch, a man by the name of Richard Mayner. They didn’t want to bring a lot of people, though, so only Surat and Amarillis would go.

Meanwhile, Charlotte was getting more and more upset about the loss of her precious teddy bear. Being back in the mortal world and not having it felt unbearable, and she wanted it back. Though originally she was planning on going alone or possibly with Johnny, Sour Gherkin convinced her to let him try to get it.

Finally, Charlotte and Johnny were going to meet up with Emily and speak with her. They were hoping she’d have any ideas, especially when it came to identifying a magical item. She spoke with them, and Johnny let her know where his Hollow was – and hearing that Grace had shown up at his Hollow surprised her. She told them what she knew about identifying Tokens – that you could sometimes see something off about the mask and see a bit of the mien through it. She showed them a lantern token she had that went from dingy and grey to bright, shiny, and lit with a dozen small balls of light.

She also invited them all over for dinner the following night, and offered to teach Johnny and Charlotte how to cook.

Sour Gherkin decided to stop by the area the body switch originally happened. He found one very strange thing – a long crack in the pavement that looked ‘off’ to his eyes and, when he touched it, made his fingers tingle and go a bit numb. The crack ran from where they’re pretty sure Cynthia was standing all the way under the bus stop bench Bea was to the road where James was driving. Sour Gherkin took a picture of it with his camera phone – but the crack didn’t show up on the picture.

Perturbed, he headed off to Charlotte’s relatives’ place, where he snuck in around 8 PM. He had a note from Charlotte for the security code and where her bedroom was, as well as what her bear looked like. He quietly made his way up to the house, and using his strong climbing skills, made his way up the bedroom, where he found the bear sitting in a small chair at a tea party, with no one in sight. He opened the unlatched window, grabbed the bear, and snuck back out. No one seemed to see him, and while he waited for the bus, he got to disturb a man waiting with him.

Surat and Amarillis’ meeting seemed to go well. Richard Mayner was waiting for them at A Cult Tea. He seemed pretty cold, but agreed to listen to them. He didn’t think a normal witch could switch bodies like that, but he might be able to help get them back – if the switched people didn’t mind losing a little blood and the worry of their souls being ‘unhooked’ from their bodies. He gave the two changelings a bit of background about spirits – he said some of them were like traditional ghosts, and some were nature-oriented, and some were more like metaphors given life.

In return for his help (and willingness to speak with the switched people), Surat made a small pledge with him. As soon as he spoke a word (he choose chrysanthemum), his next action would succeed. He has seven days to use this pledge. So that Richard would think the pledge cost Surat more than it actually did, Surat cut himself across his hand.

The motley met up again at The Classic, where Topaz cooed over Surat’s hand and they made plans to get together after her shift. The group shared their individual information and talked over what they could do. In the end, decided to gather three dogs (as Amarillis can talk to them) and see if they could recreate the body switch the following night.